Just Friends?
by cullen.xoxo
Summary: When you've known each other since you played in the sandbox, there is nothing new to learn about each other right. Thats what Bella thought but Edward will show her that when you are separated things change and people change even more. ALL HUMAN
1. Chapter 1

**Just Friends?**

**Hey Guys **

**This is my first attempt at writing a Twilight Fanfiction...  
I've read so many of them and have decided to write one of my own. I know the whole Edward and Bella start as friends and fall in love has been done so many times before but I hope that mine will be different from the rest with me putting my special twist on it.  
Anyways, hope you enjoy it, after all I am writing it for you!**

BPOV

I remember the first time I met the Cullen's. It was a bright summer day so my dad decided to take me to the park. Even as a little kid I knew that sun was a rare thing in the rainy town of Forks. He had left me playing in the sandbox and was sitting on a bench with the parents of the two kids that were playing in the sandbox when we arrived. We were playing happily in the sandbox when I took Edwards bucket. He got really mad at me because it was green, his favourite colour, and he didn't want to have to use the yellow one that his sister had discarded. He hit me over the head with his matching plastic green shovel until I gave the bucket back to him. His sister Alice stood up for me, dumping a bucket of sand on his head. He cried and Alice and I have been best friends ever since. To this day we still make fun of him for crying.

All my elementary school memories involve Alice and Edward. He was a year older then we were and we spent most of our recess time following him around and being a general annoyance. I remember the day I realised Edward couldn't control his temper. He was in the 7th grade playing basketball with his friends, I guess 7 years of us following him around without major consequences finally caught up with us. Alice hadn't even finished asking him if we could play before he hurled the ball at her face giving her a bloody nose and landing him in detention for the week. To this day he uses that as a warning when he decides hes had enough of us.

By the time high school rolled around we became pretty good friends. Alice cut most of her hair off with the reasoning that she could get an extra hour of sleep if she didn't have to deal with it every morning. Edward morphed from Alice's annoying brother to some godlike human being. It seemed like it happened over night. All of a sudden he grew to over 6 feet, he somehow managed to make his unruly messy hair into something other guys tried to achieve but failed miserably, and his body developed heavenly muscles from all the sports he played. I just stayed the same plain old Bella, not growing an inch in height, and was still trying to make it through a day without falling. Sadly I am still trying to achieve that goal.

Edward became incredibly popular getting Alice and I into all the parties and introduced us to a bunch of new people. That's how we met Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett. Alice says it was love at first sight with Jasper, but it took a little while longer for him to see it. Edward and Rose dated for a while, but just like every other girl she couldn't hold his interest for more than a couple of weeks. She found out it was over when he stood her up and was seen the next day at school making out with Jessica. I don't think Rosalie has ever forgiven him.

The day Rose and Edward left for university was horrible. We had gone through the same thing with Emmett the year before but he went to a school that was just a 2 hour drive from Forks. That's where Rosalie was going off to. Edward was going off to some big fancy school with an amazing medical program. There would be no seeing him on weekends like we could do with Em and Rose. Which is why I am sitting here now, waiting for 4pm to come around so I can finally talk to Edward, it would be 7pm his time as he was god knows where on the east coast. I looked at my watch, 3:58pm. God I hated waiting.

**Cullen:** Hey B!

**Bells:** Hey Edward. How was practice?

**Cullen:** meh. Coach was pissed, it was freezing so he kept is on the weight room the whole time... it hurts to type :(

**Bells:** aww poor baby lol, so are you excited to come home for Christmas, Alice wont stop talking about it

**Cullen:** yea I guess. I mean it will suck living at home and having to follow rules for a month. Plus I'll miss my friends that I have to leave here

I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. I had never known Edward to be a rule follower. With all the underage drinking, drugs, and staying out past curfew almost every night I'm surprised he wasn't grounded for life

**Bells:** and how many times did you make it home before curfew?

**Cullen:** haha very funny

**Cullen:** sorry B, I gotta cut this short tonight. I'll see you Friday night k

**Bells:** K bye

**Cullen has left the chat.**

I couldn't believe it. In the three months he had been gone we had always talked for at least an hour and today it was under twenty minutes. I sighed, shut my lap top down and called Alice.

"Hey Bella." Hep peppy voice answered.

"Hey Alice, wanna get together a little early? Edward had to leave early today" I asked, trying to push the sadness out of my voice.

"Sure, I'll be there in a couple of minutes." She giggled, a little too happily.

I heard a knock on the door, "Alice, are you already here?"

"Well ya, I'm coming in so don't bother coming down"

I turned my phone off when I heard her coming up the stairs. I jumped onto my bed knowing that was where he would launch herself when she came through the door.

"Bella!" she squealed, jumping onto the bed and pulling me into a hug. "Oh my god I'm so excited, Edward comes home the day after tomorrow and the Rose and Em come home on Saturday. The whole gang will be back together again."

"Whoa Alice, slow down." I laughed, "How's Jasper?"

"We need a big bucket of popcorn if we're going to talk about him."

And with that we spent the night laughing and eating popcorn. I don't know how that became our ritual when things went wrong. One night Alice had a horrible date and we put a chick flick on, made a big bowl of popcorn and she vented to me about how horrible her date was. Ever since then every problem from failed tests to broken hearts had been dealt with a big bowl of popcorn and a chick flick. I kicked Alice out around 1 am because we had school tomorrow and I needed some sleep to be able to function throughout the day.

The school day was uneventful. Nobody could pay attention due to the upcoming break for holidays. Nobody was planning on going to school tomorrow so Alice and I planned to spend the day making cookies at her house and then picking Edward up from the airport with her parents.

I woke up early Friday morning, pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and drove to Alice's house. I sent her a text on the way saying I would pick up coffee on my way, hers of course would be decaf. I saw Esme when I was driving up their driveway. She waved to me in passing, looking much more tired than usual. I let myself into the house yelling Alice's name on my way to the kitchen.

"Not so loud! We have to be quiet." She whisper-yelled at me.

"Why?" I asked, hopping up onto the counter.

"Well Edward's home." She mumbled, looking at the ground.

"Why are you just telling me this now?" I exclaimed, jumping off the counter and starting towards Edward's wing of the house, "I would have brought him a coffee so he could get his but out of bed and help us."

"I would have told you but I didn't know he was home, Mom just told me while she was leaving. Apparently he called last night and said he got an early flight, and then she told me to leave him alone and that he probably would spend most of his day either in his room or upstairs." She stopped when we got to the stairs, "Look if you want to go and wake a very grumpy Edward you can, but I'm not going to. I'll just start getting stuff ready for the cookies."

I laughed at her and ran up the stairs. I loved Edward's wing of the house. It had its own hall leading to a separate staircase. The only other way to get into his wing was through the balcony which had stairs leading to the pool. When I got to the top I smiled to myself, it just smelled like him, and it was practically his own little house. He had a bathroom, living room, guest bedroom and of course his bedroom. Alice had tried to take over the space when Edward left for school but Carlsile said Edward would always need his own space when he came home from school, so it would always be his.

I ran down the hall to his bedroom door and went to open the door but it was locked. I knocked quietly and when all I heard was a grumbled 'go away', I knocked a little harder and with more conviction. I smiled to myself when I heard the sound of feet coming to the door. But my happiness quickly turned to shock as the door opened revealing a tall gorgeous red head wearing a pair of Edwards boxers and one of his old baseball shirts. I pushed the door open a little more to see Edward quickly pulling a sweatshirt over his head, and readjusting himself.

Up to this point I had always laughed it off when Alice asked me if I liked her brother, but now it wasn't funny. I stood rooted in place, using the door for support, my mouth hanging open, just staring at him.

"Hey B." He laughed nervously.

After what felt like hours of pleading with my feet to move they finally decided to listen. I made my way down to the kitchen, leaving Edward and that slut to get dressed. I couldn't wrap my head around it, I felt like I wanted to burst into tears but didn't know why. I mean Edward and I were nothing, so what if he had a girlfriend. I mean I didn't even want to date Edward... right?

**OK that's all for today. I'm not sure if I will do short chapters like this one and update more often or do longer chapters with more time between updates. Let me know what you prefer. **

**Please review, it means a lot to me, and all opinions will be taken seriously. If you have an idea say something, if it is included I will give you full credit for the idea**

**Until next time... Happy reading **


	2. Chapter 2

**Just Friends?**

**Hey Guys **

**It was requested that I do a quick review so here it is.  
Thanks to the reviewers I was surprised at how quickly I got a couple of them. I probably wont update this fast all the time so please don't get upset if the next update takes longer.  
Enjoy...**

BPOV

20 minutes later I was still sitting on the counter gorging myself on raw chocolate chip cookie dough. At first when I came down Alice pretended that she didn't know that I was upset, but she only gave me that peace for 10 minutes.

"I just don't get it." I said, throwing my hands up in the air. "I've stayed in his wing before. I slept in the guest room. I mean why doesn't she sleep in the guest room."

"I don't know what to tell ya Bells. Maybe they were just too tired or the bed wasn't made." Alice sighed throwing a bag of popcorn into the microwave.

"Oh my god Alice they were having sex! I just interrupted Edward and the red headed bimbo having sex! What if I walked in on them?" I shrieked, quickly shovelling the popcorn into my mouth.

"Trust me, you would have known," she mumbled under her breath, "it gets pretty noisy."

"Hes had sex before!" my voice raised to another decibel "And you heard him!"

Alice grabbed my hand "Okay Bella you need to come back to reality. I know you know that hes been sleeping with girls since high school. Plus hes in college now, hes probably sleeping his way through the class list.

I took a big breath, "I know Alice, but I've never had to actually deal with it before. Plus I've never cared before, why do I care now?"

"Well you can finally admit that you love him." Alice said it so fast that I almost didn't hear her.

"Why do you keep saying that? You know I don't love him."

"Well then why are you having this reaction?" she persisted.

She kept talking but I tuned her out. There was no way that I was in love with Edward Cullen. I just wouldn't allow it.

EPOV

_20 minutes earlier_

"Who was that?" Kristy giggled, falling onto my bed.

"Oh, just Bella, my sisters friend." I mumbled pulling her against me and placing a sloppy kiss on her neck.

"I'm watching you Cullen." She laughed pushing me away. She kissed my forehead before walking out of the room and towards the bathroom.

I pushed myself out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans. I could hardly believe it when Kristy called me asking if I wanted to fly last night instead of today. Her sister decided not to fly home for another week so she gave her ticket to me. People thought Kris and I were dating when really we were just close friends. Ya I was attracted to her and I knew she was attracted to me but we never really made it official or anything. We fooled around a bunch but she knew that I didn't want commitment so she didn't push the issue. I was free to see other people as long as I didn't flaunt it in her face. She was awesome.

I missed being home and I was really excited to see Emmett and Jasper again. Rose didn't really are if she saw me ever again, but she was at least civil when we were around each other. Alice and Bella were kinda just there, I knew nothing would change between us and that's the way I liked it.

"Hey sexy" Kristy whispered tickling my sides as I decided what shirt to wear.

I pulled a grey long sleeve over my head before pulling her against me so that she couldn't use her arms anymore. I placed a series of kisses along her jaw bone. "Truce" I mumbled against her neck.

"Okay fine, just let me get dressed. You should probably get something to eat cause we need to leave for the airport soon." She pushed away from me and walked over to her suitcase.

"K I'll be downstairs."

"Hey lovely sister of mine." I laughed pulling her into a hug.

"Edward!" she screeched jumping up and down. "How was college? Did you make lots of friends? Do you have a girlfriend? When did you get home?"

I was used to her onslaught of questions by now and had learned to memorize the order, "It was good, yes, no and around 3am"

"So Bella says there's a girl upstairs"

"Yea, she's a friend from university; she needed a place to crash last night. I'm taking her to the airport in a few minutes so she can catch her flight home." I grabbed a cookie off the baking sheet and ate it, grabbing a couple more for the road.

"Can we come?" she asked, giving me a look that said I have no choice.

I simply shrugged and walked to the front door. Bella was there pulling her coat on. I was about to say something when I heard Kristy call my name. She must have gotten lost, last night when we came in most of the lights were off and she didn't pay much attention to where we were going. I was about to go get her when Alice walked in directing the way. I pulled on my coat gave Kristy hers and grabbed her suitcase. When we got to the car Bella and Alice decided they would take the back seat.

Once we hit the open road I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. I loved driving. I was a good driver, the cops didn't think so and always pulled me over for speeding but I had never been in an accident and was always complimented on my driving.

"Edward slow down." Bella scolded from the back seat.

"Common B, stop being the mother hen and live a little." I knew she would get mad at me for that, she hated when I called her anything that related to being motherly or overly cautious.

She started talking again but I just turned the radio up until I couldn't hear her anymore. I looked over at Kristy. She just shook her head and looked out the window. I grabbed her hand and slowly ran my thumb over her knuckles until she looked at me. When she did I pulled her hand up to my mouth and bit it lightly which made her laugh out loud.

"What the fuck" I yelled glaring at Alice through the mirror as she settled back into her seat after smacking my head.

Her only response was an eye roll.

When we got to the airport I got out gave Kristy her bag and pulled her into me, wrapping my arm around her and kissing her softly. It was moments like this that caused people to think we were dating but I didn't care. I could do what I wanted with my friends as long as they were ok with it.

When I got back into the car Alice and Bella were still in the backseat so I just turned the music up even louder and drove home. Stopping once on the way to grab some new sheet music to write on.

BPOV

I sat in the back of the car completely flabbergasted with everything that was going on in the front seat. It was so obvious that they were dating that it was sickening. I mean why did he have to hold her hand, and then when he dropped her off he gave her a kiss that showed without question that they were more than friends. When I said goodbye when he left for school I would have remembered a kiss like that and I can tell you that I did not receive one. All I got was a quick hug and messed up hair.

When we made a quick stop at the music store I elbowed Alice. "What is with him? He's being such a jerk."

"I don't know I can't believe he turned the music out to drown you out."

"And did you see the kiss," I cut her off. "He practically had sex with her right then and there. And now he ignores us all the way home. I mean we haven't seen him for 3 months the least he could do is talk to us."

Alice just sighed as Edward got back into the car. When we got home Esme was in the kitchen wrapping a bunch of presents. I said goodbye to her and Alice and left not saying bye to Edward. When I got home I went up to my room to check my email. As I waited for the email page to load a message popped onto the screen.

**Cullen requests to chat**

I sighed and accepted the chat just to see what he wanted. I looked my watch and sure enough it was 4pm.

**Bells:** what do you want

**Cullen: **well hello to you too

**Bells:** what are we talking to each other now

**Cullen:** what is going on with you, you've been grumpy with me all day and I didn't do anything wrong

**Bells:** you didn't talk to me at all in the car except for when you were making fun of me

**Cullen:** you know you were mad at me before that, so don't bother lying

**Cullen:** are you mad because of Kristy, cause you really shouldn't be. Shes just my friend. But even if she was more you can't be mad because we are only friends.

**Bells:** I don't know what to say to you. I'm not mad because of her, just about how you treated me today. Oh and friends don't kiss friends goodbye

**Cullen:** well I do Bella, that's how I show my really good friends that I will miss them

**Bells:** when you left for school you just gave me a hug and messed up my hair, are you saying that were not really good friends

**Cullen:** if you can't handle me having other friends I guess we aren't, you were always just Alices annoying friend anyways

**Cullen has left the chat**

I didn't know what just happened. I knew Edward had a temper so I didn't know if he was serious or not. I turned my lap top off and decided to take a shower, maybe he would text me and say he was sorry while I was in the shower. Yea he would do that if he had let his temper get the best of him. Just like when we were kids he would apologize real quick.

When I got out of the shower there were no new messages on my phone. I tried to call Alice to see if she wanted to come over to eat because Charlie needed to work overtime and wouldn't be home until late but she never answered her phone. I always used to find comfort in the quiet but tonight it was horrible. I put a movie on curled up into a ball on the couch and cried.

Edward was a jerk. How could I be in love with a jerk? I knew better then to fall for assholes. But then I heard Alice's voice in my head. If I didn't love him why was I having this reaction and why was I so angry about him kissing Kristy. The movie ended and I made my way upstairs. I checked my phone once more and learned that I still had no new messages. I guess Edward really was mad. I got into bed when I realised that I had nothing better or less depressing to do. I couldn't believe it, I was supposed to spend the night watching movies and eating cookies with Alice and Edward. Instead I was going to bed at 8pm on the first night of my holidays. If Alice was right and I had fallen in love with Edward I was going to make sure I fell out of it just as fast.

**There you go another chapter completed. It was a little longer than the first one but I think that 2 updates in as many days is pretty good.**

**Remember that reviews are awesome **

**Until next time... happy reading**


	3. Chapter 3

**Just Friends?**

**Thanks again to all the reviewers. With each chapter I am getting more reviews and that means so much to me. Your reviews are what keep me writing **

**There is a link in my profile with what I imagine Kristy to look like. There are also links for what Edward and Bella are wearing to the party.**

**Okay, this chapter was pretty interesting to write. We had some tornado warnings and I wrote it out on paper by candlelight in my basement. I don't know why but I just can't stop writing this.**

EPOV

I fell onto my bed with a sigh, I couldn't believe Bella, who did she think she was. She was all pissy just because I kissed Kristy goodbye when she left, and I apparently didn't kiss her when I left for university. I must say I didn't quite understand the girl brain. Plus even if I had kissed her it would be nothing like how I kissed Kristy. Bella was Alice's friend, she was like a little sister to me, and let me tell you I don't go around kissing Alice like that. I'm not even dating her for gods sake, she can't tell me who I can and cannot kiss, if I listened to her she probably wouldn't let me kiss anyone. That's why I liked Kristy, she knew we weren't dating so she didn't care if I kissed someone else goodbye, not that she would like the idea but she wouldn't freak out on me for it.

I did feel a little bad that I told Bella I didn't think of her as a friend but she just made me so mad. It wasn't even the worse thing I have said to a girl, if I had told her what I really wanted to say I would probably be in a ditch somewhere after she sent her little mutt friend Jacob after me. Just thinking about him mad me want to hit something, the way he followed her around was sickening, like he couldn't stand not seeing her for one minute. I never got that with a girl, well that was a lie there was one girl but I would never be able to see her again. But even with her it wasn't in a sexual way at all, it was pure brotherly love.

It had been one of the best kept secrets in Forks, where usually nothing was kept a secret. I was adopted by the Cullens when I was 12 people just assumed I was their biological son. Alice had a red tint to her hair, Carlsile and Esme were both tall so people didn't question why I was so much taller than Alice, and I was always seen with them. The truth was my biological mother was a crack whore and my biological father was an angry drunk. I used to go to the park by myself as a kid, that's how I met the Cullens, they always watched out for me when I was there. Alice assumed I was her brother and that's how I started getting introduced to people. I would spend so many nights at their house that it seemed like I was actually a part of the family. When Alice got older she started asking why I didn't spend every night with them, Esme would just say that I was at a friends house.

I remember it so clearly the day that all hell broke loose. We were at the grocery store, well me and my biological parents when someone came up and asked me why I was with them and not with the Cullens, needless to say Mr. Mason was not too happy about that. When we got home he beat me up so bad that I ended up in the hospital. Carlsile picked me up that night, and I have lived with him and his family ever since.

I had a biological sister too, when Carlsile took me in he had no idea. She was a couple years older than me so by the time I was 12 she was 18 and had moved out of the house. When we were younger she was my life, I would follow her anywhere, she was all I had besides the Cullens. I had thought she was safe, but then in October I got a call from the police saying that my sister had been hit by a drunk driver. I guess you can say I shut down a bit after finding that news. When the only person that you are connected to by blood that you care about gets taken away from you it's like something dies inside of you. I hadn't told anyone, but I promised myself that I would never let someone have that much power over my heart again.

This plus the Jacob anger exploded in me and I trashed my room, all of my cds, and sheet music were thrown everywhere, I ripped the clothes out of my closet, smashed the pictures that were on the wall and then collapsed onto my bed. I thanked Carlsile over and over again for giving me my own wing. I knew it was early but I just wanted to forget what was going on, I grabbed a sleeping pill or 4 and dry swallowed them, waiting for them to pull me into the darkness.

BPOV

I rolled over pulling the sheet up over my face in an attempt to block out the sunlight but it wasn't working. I sat up quickly, jumped out of bed and ran to the window. It was sunny, I squealed in delight but then remembered what had happened last night. I grabbed my phone to see if I had any messages. I smiled to myself when I saw that I had 4 messages, I knew Edward didn't mean to get that angry at me.

The first one was from Alice she wanted to know if I wanted to go to the welcome home party Jasper was throwing for Edward, Emmett and Rosalie, there was one from Rose saying she was coming over with Alice to get ready for the party at 6, there was one from my dad telling me he heard about the party and that I could go he just wanted me to be responsible, and the last one was from Jacob, he wanted to know if I wanted to watch some Christmas movies with him.

I replied to all of them, agreeing with Jacob that he could come over at noon for lunch and movies, and told Alice that yes I would go to the party even though I knew I didn't have a choice when it came to it. I was pretty upset that Edward hadn't said he was sorry, but it's not like I could do anything about it, he was moody and wouldn't do something until he wanted to. I pulled out my laptop and dinked around for a few hours, I wasn't in the mood to do much.

I started getting lunch ready when the phone rang.

"Hello"

"Hey Bella, I was just calling to let you know that Rose and I are coming early, we got bored and thought we could have a girls day" Alice sounded a little distracted, she was probably driving, already on her way over here.

"Sure, but it will be a girls day with Jacob, he's coming here for lunch and a Christmas movie marathon."

"That's cool, we can invite him to a party. Okay, I'm in your driveway unlock the door." And with that the line went dead.

I went and opened the door for her and Rose when I saw Jacob walking up the driveway behind them. I gave Rose and Alice a hug letting them in, and then gave Jacob an awkward hug when he came up. We usually hugged each other all the time, but nobody was usually around to see it. Sometimes his dad would see but it wasn't like he was going to judge us. I knew Rosalie didn't like Jacob because he didn't have as much money as her. I didn't want to not hug him but I didn't want my friends to judge me either.

"So were having grilled cheese for lunch, hope that's ok, it's all that was in the house." I gave them each a plate with a grilled cheese sandwich on it.

"What movie do you want to watch" Jacob asked me trying to make conversations as Alice and Rose ate in complete silence.

"Doesn't matter to me, I have a party to get ready for at some point so I will only be able to watch one."

"Yea, Alice and I can pick something out for you to wear, we don't want to impose." I knew Rose was lying through her teeth so she didn't have to make small talk with Jake but I simply agreed and they headed upstairs.

"So Alice said you can come to the party if you want." I told Jacob as we cleaned up after the movie was over.

"I don't think they actually want me to come, especially Edward, last time I showed up at one of the parties he was at I ended up with a broken nose"

"Well I would like you to come, I'll talk to you, Edward and I aren't talking at the moment. If you want to come it's at Jaspers house" I gave him a quick hug goodbye and went up to see what Alice and Rose had in store for me.

"You have no nice clothes in here, what are you going to wear tonight?" Alice sounded distressed.

"A long sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans."

"Bella you need to show some skin if you want Edward to notice you." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"She wants to get noticed by Edward," Rose broke out into a fit of giggles, "She will defiantly have to show a lot of skin, do you know how many people will be at this tonight, Em and I invited a bunch of our friends from school, the house is going to be packed."

"You know how cold I get even when I am fully covered, plus I am not trying to get his attention or any attention. I'm not wearing some skimpy ass thing just to get a guy to look at me." I know I was whining but I wasn't in the mood to deal with them today.

"Will you at least wear a t-shirt, and a pair of fitted jeans, it will be like a compromise." Alice ran over to my closet pulling the jeans out, as if to show me it would be ok.

"Fine" I grabbed the jeans from her and walked into the bathroom to change. If it was Alice or Rose they would have just changed right there, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that.

When I went back into my room Rose and Alice had decided that a t-shirt just wouldn't do and decided that I needed to wear a little sweater instead, that was fine by me, the more covered I was, the more comfortable I was. Alice gave me a pair of heels and I knew there was no way I was getting out of wearing them.

"Fine." I mumbled pulling them onto my feet, "Can we just get going, I don't want to walk in when it's crazy busy."

"Sure, but were going to my house first. I want to get a jacket and Edward is going to drive us to the party. It's supposed to snow tonight and I hate driving in the snow." Alice said as we got into her car.

"You do know that he hates me right now right?" I mumbled fiddling with my hair, I planned on avoiding him at the party but if he was my ride I guess I had to talk to him at some point.

"Oh no, I didn't know. He hasn't come downstairs all day so I haven't talked to him."

When we walked into Alice's house we Rose and I went straight to the kitchen to grab some drinks from the fridge. I froze when I saw Edward sitting there eating a bowl of cereal. It was hard to be mad at him when he was so perfect. His hair was in its usual disarray, I wanted to touch it, it looked so soft. His pants were ripped at the knee and he was wearing a white tee underneath a blue button up shirt. He had a black jaket sitting beside him, it was too warm in the house to wear it but I knew it would finish his outfit perfectly. I knew he was dressing casual for the party, but he would be able to pull it off, everything he did was perfect.

I mentally smacked myself in the head, he was a jerk, he ignored me and was mean. Oh yea, I really had good reasons to hate him. It was so annoying that as soon as I saw him I completely forgot why I was mad at him. I had the reasons a 4 year old would have if they were mad at their friend.

Rosalie walked over to him and gave him an awkward hug from behind. I knew that she still had feelings for him. When she saw him with Jessica she didn't say anything to him, didn't get mad, didn't cry, she simply distanced herself from him. She wouldn't admit it but both Alice and I knew that she wanted him back. Physically they were perfect for each other, but other than the physical attraction they had for each other there was nothing.

He leaned back into her, showing that he was okay with the closeness, and whispered something to her that made her blush. I went to go find Alice so they could be alone. I really didn't want to see how he said hello to his friends if it was anything like he said goodbye.

EPOV

I heard Rose and Bella come in. I was still mad at her and I knew she was still mad at me. Alice had pushed a note under my door at some point telling me that I was driving to the party tonight. I was looking forward to it, we had exams right before the break so there wasn't much time to party and I needed to get drunk. Plus I was looking forward to seeing Emmett and Jasper, it was the longest time we had sent apart since we knew each other. Wow I sounded like a girl.

I saw Rose walk over out of the corner of my eye. Man she looked good. I felt her wrap her arms around me and I leaned back into her, "Hey sexy."

She blushed, "Hey yourself."

I saw Bella leave the room and was kinda thankful, I didn't want her getting upset again for no reason. I pulled Roses head down to me and gave her a soft kiss on the side of her mouth. She moved her head sideways and captured my lips. This surprised me, she was always so distant, but I wasn't complaining, she was an awesome kisser. Whoever she ended up with would be a lucky man.

"Okay we're ready to go" Alice yelled from the front door, ending our kiss. Rose pulled away and walked into the hall as if nothing had happened.

If that was an indicator on how the night was going to be I was pretty excited. I grabbed my coat off the chair beside me and went to the door. Tonight was going to be a lot better than I thought it would.

**So I know I told some of you that this would be up last night. That was the plan but I ended up having to rewrite some parts. **

**A lot happened in this chapter, sorry if it was a little jumpy, but I wanted to give some insight on Edward. **

**Reviews are awesome **

**Happy Reading xoxo**


	4. Chapter 4

**Just Friends?**

**Hey Guys,**

**You may or may not have noticed that I changed my penname. There isn't really a big reason for it except I picked my last one when I was in a hurry and didn't really think about it.**

**Thanks to those who reviewed, and those who wanted alerts for the story. I feel like I am updating a little to quickly to get a bunch of reviews but I am not going to hold my story hostage and have reviews as payment. But I will say that the more reviews I get the more motivated I am. **

EPOV

The party wasn't in full swing when we got there but from the amount of people that were already there it was obvious that it was going to be an insane party. I opened the door and held it for the girls letting them walk in ahead of me.

"Eddie is that you?" Emmetts voice boomed from somewhere in the house.

"Where are ya you big oaf?"

I was walking down the hall when I felt a pair of arms wrap around me in a death grip, lifting me off the floor. I struggled but couldn't get free, "Em let go of me man, people are staring."

He placed me back onto my feet and we gave each other a quick guy hug. Jasper came out from the kitchen and he too pulled me into a quick hug. I couldn't help but laugh, it was awesome to see them again, they had been my best friends for 4 years, the only guys who I could be truly comfortable with.

"What are the girls like here?"

"Well they're pretty sexy." Emmett laughed pointing out a couple of girls, showing that we were not supposed to go after them.

"No need to worry about me, you both know I'm loyal to Alice." Jasper laughed as he went to go find her.

We walked down the stairs and found the girls at the bar by the fire place. It was the place that we had been drinking at since the 9th grade. We had learned more about each other around that table then we would like to admit. Like the fact that Jasper preferred boxer-briefs, Rosalie had sex for the first time in the back of Jaspers car, he sold the car a week later, I planned to write a full concert worth of piano music, and when Bella was at home alone she sometimes walked around in her underwear.

I grabbed my shot glass from where it sat on the top shelf. When we were 16 we all went out and bought shot glasses, we each had our own and you were not allowed to use anybody else's. It was a weird rule but we all followed it religiously. I shook in front of Jasper's face, not trusting what Emmett would put into it, I wanted to get drunk fast but for some reason I always got sick when I let Emmett pick my drinks.

I threw it back and shook my head. It always took me a while to get used to the alcohol. I loved the feeling of being drunk but didn't always like what it took to get there.

"Here." Bella mumbled passing me a beer, "If I remember right you need to start simple."

"Thanks."

"Want me to be the DD?" she asked

I simply nodded while chugging back the beer and giving the empty back to Bella. She passed me a full one. I liked it this way, this was how Iit used to be, simple, no jealousness, no anger, just easy and fun. I looked over my shoulder to scope out the room, a blonde girl I recognized from one of the parties I went to at Emmetts dorm last year walked up the stairs. I quickly finished my beer, slammed the empty on the table, and left to head up the stairs and after the girl.

BPOV

I was still undecided on how to act around Edward, I wanted to be able to stay mad at him but I couldn't control the automatic responses to things he did. Rose sat in the front on the way to the party which made sense with her having the longest legs of those of us who weren't driving. I felt really stupid when I realised that it was going to snow tonight and all I had for warmth was a light sweater.

The minute we walked in Edward went to find the boys, not surprising, they were just like brothers, all hugs and smiles. Alice, Rose and I headed downstairs to our usual drinking spot, I smiled to myself, it hadn't changed since the night before everyone had left to go to school.

"So Edward looks hot tonight." Rosalie laughed while making herself a martini.

"I would like for one night not to talk about my brother." Alice grabbed some glasses for their drinks and I grabbed a bottle of water. There was no drinking for me tonight.

The boys came down and took their usual spots Emmett and Jasper behind the bar, Alice, Rose and I on the stools with Edward leaning against the wall beside me. He shook his shot glass in front of Jasper and I couldn't help but shake my head, he liked to drink but I knew he usually liked to start with a beer, a fact that he almost always forgot. I passed him one and was surprised at how quickly he finished it. He gave me the now empty bottle and I gave him a new one, at the rate he was going it was going to b a long night. When he randomly got up and went up the stairs nobody was surprised, but I felt a twinge of sadness which surprised me. Edward finding girls to hook up with was nothing new to any of us and it had never bothered me before. Damn Alice why did she have to put this into my head.

"And so the hunter goes after his prey." Emmett laughed clinking bottles with Jasper.

"Fifty bucks says he fucks her." Jasper said to nobody in particular.

"I'll test my luck, I say he doesn't." Alice shook Jaspers had and the bet was made.

"This will be the easiest fifty bucks I have ever made."

We all knew Jasper was right, once Edward decided he wanted something he would get it. Not that he forced himself upon anyone, he didn't have to, once he gave you that crooked smile you were putty in his hands.

I sighed and took a long drink from my water bottle, whishing that I hadn't agreed to be the DD for the night. I could really use a drink right now. I saw Eric sitting on the couch with Angela and Ben, none of them were drinking but that didn't surprise me. They looked so out of place, last year it would have seemed normal but within a crowd of drunken college students it just looked weird.

"Hey Ang" I walked over to them.

She smiled me as I sat down beside her, "Some party"

"Oh yea" I laughed. "Once again I am stuck babysitting Edward when he's done with whichever girl he went after tonight. Which sucks because he'll be tired and drunk so he will be extra grumpy."

"I don't get why you put up with him." Eric grumbled, checking behind him to make sure Edward wasn't standing there.

"Isn't it obvious, he's gorgeous." We all looked up surprised as Jessica joined the conversation. "Oh and Bella Alice said to tell you she's going home, apparently she ate something that's making her sick."

"Did Jasper go with her?"

"I'm pretty sure he did." She checked the bar where we were before, "I'm going to assume so, nobody's at the bar."

"Then she's not sick." I laughed to myself, knowing that Alice just wanted to have some alone time with Jasper without Edward knowing.

I was starting to get bored of the party when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Emmetts face a few inches from mine causing me to jump.

"It's time for you to take Edward home." He laughed pointing up the stairs.

We went up and I couldn't hold the laughter back. Rose was trying to get Edwards shoes on but as soon as she finished with the one and went to the next he would kick the shoe off. Obviously he didn't want to leave.

"Edward" she sighed, obviously frustrated, "You need to go home now. You punched Mike in the face for no reason."

With the mention on Mikes name Edward jumped up and went to run up the stairs, luckily for Mike Emmett managed to grab his arm.

"How much did he drink?" I asked helping Rose put his shoes on once Emmett got him back onto the bench.

"Way too much, hes been in the bathroom for a big portion of the night." Emmett laughed pushing Edward out the door.

It was relatively smooth sailing once we got him into the car. I must say that I loved driving his car, it was so much easier to drive than the truck was. Edward seemed to sober up quite a bit once we were in the car which was typical. Sometimes I thought it was the party atmosphere that pushed him over the edge, because once we were alone he could form a whole sentence and stopped acting like a 4 year old. He was still grumpy as hell but I could tolerate that.

"Park somewhere, we need to talk."

"The usual spot?" I asked, not looking at him.

"Mhmm"

I drove down the deserted road and pulled over in our usual spot. Without speaking we started to walk down the small path that led to the meadow. If you did not already know the path was there you would never find it, but we had come here so often that even with my clumsiness and the lack of light we made it safely to the clearing.

When we got into the clearing we both collapsed onto the ground, just like we has done so many times growing up.

"Come here." He mumbled, pulling me closer to him. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"Hows Forks been?" He started playing with my hair.

"Pretty much the same, Angela and Ben are official now." I shivered, suddenly realising it was December and all I had on was a light sweater.

Edward must have felt it because before I could protest he had taken his jacket off and draped it around my shoulders.

"Thanks." I slid my arms into the sleeves and laid back down putting my head on his chest and wrapping my arm around his stomach, trying to give him some heat.

"Bella." I felt him slowly roll us over so that he was lying half beside me and half on top of me.

"Yea?" I looked up at him, a little startled when I saw how close his face was to mine. And then it happened. He slowly brought his face closer to mine so I could feel his breath on my lips. I didn't say anything, I just looked into his eyes and slowly nodded my head. He closed the gap between us and kissed me gently. He quickly turned it from a simple kiss to a very intense and passionate one, gently pulling me hair with one hand while caressing my side with the other. I couldn't really think, to mesmerized by the feeling of his lips on mine. Just as soon as it started the kiss ended.

"Shit" Edward mumbled pulling away and sitting up. "Come on we need to go home."

"Oh okay." I was completely confused. One second he was kissing me and then it was back to Edward being a grumpy jerk.

I drove us back to his house. Getting out of the car and walking in with him.

"Alice has Jasper in her room." I mumbled awkwardly

"Oh you can stay in my wing I guess."

I was surprised when we walked past the guest bedroom and I followed him into his room.

"Here's a pillow for you, I'm pretty sure there's new sheets on the bed in the guest room. I'm pretty sure you're the only one that stays there anyway so it wouldn't be a problem."

I nodded. Once again I was slapped in the face with the realization that the guest room was mine. I was a guest in his world. Someone who just flitted in and out. Not constant enough to be considered a friend, I was just Alice's friend, I would have to remember that.

I heard his bedroom door close and lock as I fought back tears.

**Hope you liked the chapter. **

**I have an idea for another story, and it's basically screaming at me to be written. I don't know if I am going to make it a sequel to this one or take on writing 2 stories at once. If I make it a sequel I will most likely rush through this story a bit, leaving out some things that I wanted to include. Let me know what you think because as you know I am writing this for you.**

**Also as a little incentive to review, all those who do review to this chapter will be given an insiders tip about what my next story will be about. **

**Happy Reading xoxo**


	5. Chapter 5

**Just Friends?**

**Okay so I have decided to finish this story and then do the other one. I feel like if I do 2 stories at once neither will be getting my full attention and then the story will suffer. **

**Once again thanks to those who reviewed, it keeps me writing. **

EPOV

I felt like a jerk, I knew I shouldn't have kissed her but I couldn't stop myself. I felt like an even bigger jerk when I kicked her out of my room and made her go to the guest room. I wanted her to stay with me, I really did but I could never let her know what happened at night. She would be too upset and would probably tell Carlsile instead of letting me handle it. Kristy knew what I did, she wouldn't let me do it when she stayed but kept my mind off of it until I fell asleep, sometimes lying awake for hours while I tossed and turned, but she never got mad.

It was times like this when I wish I had my bathroom attached to my room instead of it being across from the guest room. But I couldn't do it here, I needed to be able to see the red be washed away, making sure there were no visible signs to people of what was going on. That was the mistake I made when I first started doing this to myself. Carlsile came up to the school for a surprise visit and saw the visible marks on my arms. He had been so mad and made me promise to stop. I told him I would but just found a new place to attack my body, a place where he would never see it.

I grabbed walked as quietly as I could to the bathroom, I knew Bella was a light sleeper and I didn't want her to hear me. Once I got into the bathroom I shut the door quietly and locked it. I pulled the little piece of metal out of the drawer where it hid with my shaving stuff. I quickly pulled up my pant leg and pulled my sock off before hopping up onto the counter and placing my foot into the sink. I looked at my ankle, the old scars and some new scabs from the night before I came here. I hated that I couldn't stop doing this to myself, I was always so nervous that someone would walk in and catch me. But as soon as I ran the sharp edge along my skin it all washed away, the pain wasn't even a pain anymore it was more of a feeling of comfort. Just one line, that's all it took tonight which was relatively surprising, but I wasn't going to complain, the less marks there were the less chance someone had of finding them.

I pulled my sock back on being careful around the tender area and wandered back to my room. I looked at the clock it was 4am, there was no way I could take my pills without someone wondering what was going on. That was the worst thing about those stupid pills, when I took them I was out of it for at least 12 hours and felt shitty for a few more after. Great now I would never fall asleep. When I was younger I would have went and stayed with Esme and Carlsile, but I was too old for that now, Alice had Jasper in there with her which only left Bella. I'm sure she was mad at me but it was a chance I had to take if I wanted to get any sleep tonight.

I walked down the hall and quietly opened her door.

"B are you awake?" I whispered into the darkness.

"No"

"Then how could you answer." I made my way over to the bed and crawled over to where she was. Flopping down beside her. "wow this bed is hard, lets go back to mine."

That got her attention and she sat up quickly. "What?

"I said lets go back to my bed, I want you to stay with me." I mumbled into the pillow, not really wanting to hear her answer. If I were her I would have said no, and that I was being an ass.

"Edward you need to stop doing this, you're confusing me."

"I'm sorry." I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer to me. "So can we go to my comfy bed or are you going to make me suffer."

"We can go to yours." She got up off the bed and walked to my room.

"Which side do you want?" I asked her as we got into my room.

"Whichever one you don't sleep on."

"I tend to sleep in the middle." I laughed as I got into bed.

She crawled in after me and lied on her back. "You're sleeping fully dressed?"

I looked down to see that I was still wearing all my clothes. "Well I usually sleep in boxers, would you be okay with that?"

"As long as you're covered I don't care."

I rolled off my bed, quickly pulling off my shirt and pants. I crawled back into my bed placing my head on her stomach. "Scratch"

"Say please." She laughed

"Please." I mumbled into her stomach making her laugh.

I moaned softly as I felt her fingers run through my hair before lightly scratching my head. I wasn't exactly sure why but ever since I was a kid I loved having my head scratched. When I had nightmares or I couldn't sleep I would go into Esme's room and she would scratch my head until I fell asleep.

"Harder please."

She laughed again but the pressure on my head increased. I'm not sure how long it took me to fall asleep but I felt my eyes flutter open at some point in the darkness, a little surprised to find my head still on Bellas stomach. I rolled off of her, moving my head up to the pillow. Missing the closeness I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her against me. Once again I was surprised with how quickly sleep found me.

BPOV

I let my eyes slowly open, if last night was a dream I didn't really want it to end. I no longer felt Edwards head on my stomach, I rolled over to see him sprawled out on his stomach, taking up the majority of his king size bed.

I scooted over to him and ran my hand through his hair knowing that he was a very heavy sleeper and it wouldn't wake him. I couldn't wrap my head around what happened last night all I knew was that I liked kissing Edward and I liked waking up next to him. I started to slowly scratching his back, knowing that he enjoyed that.

"Feels good." He mumbled into his pillow, trying to find me with his hand. He rolled over onto his back and pulled me into a hug. "Morning B."

"Good morning, how was your sleep?"

"Much better than I thought it would be actually, what about you?"

"It was pretty good once you finally fell asleep, it was so hard for me to stay awake."

"I thought I fell asleep fast, how long did it take?" I put my head on her stomach and she took the message to start scratching my head again.

"Lets say I stopped at 6 and still wasn't sure you were fully asleep."

"You didn't have to do that for so long, it felt so short for me."

"It was ok, plus you got all grumpy whenever I stopped. I must say it was pretty cute." Oh my god, did I just call Edward cute? The look on his face says I did.

"You're pretty cute when you sleep." He said it so quietly I almost didn't hear it.

"Edward, did you make it home ok, are you alive, do I need to call an ambulance. No wait Carlsile is here I think, I'll go find him. Rose said you drank a lot." Alice banged on the door completely ruining the moment. "Did you make sure Bella got home okay, I checked the guest room and she wasn't there, I hope you didn't drive."

"Alice shut up." I jumped a little when Edward yelled. "I'm fine, Bella's fine, the guest room is empty because she's in here."

"Why is Bella in there, I swear to god if she's no longer a virgin when I finally get into this room I will kill you." I couldn't believe she said that.

"Doors open Ali." He laughed removing his head from my stomach.

"Bella are you okay, he didn't do anything right. I can get someone to hurt him for you."

"Alice nothing happened, I promise you." I sat up pushing the covers down to show that I was still fully dressed.

She jumped onto the bed and gave me a hug. "Wait is he wearing anything, I don't want to be in the same bed as my brother if he is naked."

"I'm wearing boxers, relax Alice"

"Don't forget the socks." I added, "Which I must say is kinda weird. Like if you want to sleep with hardly anything on, why would you keep the socks."

"I just do okay." He replied grumpily, wow mood swing much.

"So what do you want to do today?" Alice asked, "Jasper and I were just thinking about watching movies all day. You know like we planned to do last night but you two got into it for some reason."

I was happy she had suggested movies instead of shopping, I couldn't handle shopping with her today.

"That's fine Alice, but can you please leave so I can get dressed." Edward yawned.

"Okay awesome, I'll go tell Jasper to pick some movies. See you down there." And with that she skipped out of the room, yelling for Jasper.

"Want me to leave too?"

"Doesn't matter to me." He pushed himself out of the bed, and I'm not going to lie, I totally checked him out.

He pulled on a pair of pants and a sweater. "Want one?" he asked holding a sweater out to me.

"Sure." I pulled it over my head breathing in his scent. God he smelled good.

"Alright lets go see what Alice has planned for us. I know when she says movies she hardly ever means just that."

I smiled and nodded my agreement, in the past Alices movie days had ended with games of strip poker and a very embarrassing game of truth or dare. I really hope she didn't have anything special planned for today.


	6. Chapter 6

**Just Friends?**

**Wow 214 hits in one day that's crazy, thanks to everyone who read and hopefully enjoyed the story. Special thanks to those who reviewed, it makes me so happy to know that you don't want to stop reading. **

**Ok so I feel horrible about how long it took to get this chapter up. I've rewritten it so many times and I'm still not happy with it yet. I am however just posting it so I can move on and hopefully forget about it. **

EPOV

I walked down the stairs following Bella, I couldn't really tell is she was still mad about last night, I really hoped not, I mean I let her sleep with me. Well I guess that was more for my benefit. I couldn't believe how late she stayed up scratching my head, I don't know if I would do that for someone. It was crazy how much I had wanted to kiss her this morning, but then Alice came in and ruined the moment. I had kissed her last night, and I hadn't really wanted to pull away but I knew if I would most likely end up hurting her when I realised I was getting to close. I had made that promise to myself and I had no intention of breaking it.

We got to the bottom to find Alice and Jasper cuddled up together on the love seat. I fell onto the couch, lying down and taking up most of the room.

"Edward, share with Bella." Alice demanded, pointing at my feet.

I moved them, allowing Bella to sit where they once were. I was a little surprised when she pulled them onto her lap once she sat down, allowing me to stretch out again.

"Wait switch ends, come here." She looked at me and raised an eyebrow, obviously confused. I sat up as she came over to my head. Once she sat down I put my head in her lap. "Scratch please."

She laughed a little but started scratching my head, and I let a small smile form on my lips. The plan was to watch a bunch of Christmas movies starting with Rudolph. Alice loved all the songs in it and when we were younger she would often sing along. It was hard to stay awake throughout the movie with Bella scratching my head.

"Honey I'm home." I jumped when I heard Emmetts voice as he came into the house. He and Rose walked into the living room. "Whoa, what's going on in here?"

"More importantly what's going on with you two?" I looked pointedly at their laced hands.

"Oh yea, we forgot to tell you, we've been dating for about a month now." Emmett smiled kissing Rosalie on the top of her head

Alice and Bella squealed and I turned my head away from Emmett, I couldn't believe I had kissed Rose while she was dating my best friend, if he ever found out I was dead.

"Anyways we can't stay, we just wanted to come by and drop of Edward wallet, we found it in the bathroom last night."

"Thanks." I mumbled, I hadn't even realised it was missing.

"Where are you guys off to?" Alice asked, probably wondering if they were going shopping.

"Were driving up to the Port. I need to get presents for my parents." Emmett grumbled, obviously he didn't want to spend the day shopping, especially if it was for someone else.

"Can I come?" Alice jumped off of the couch and went running over to where Rose and Em stood. "Jasper can keep you company, and then Rose and I can go shop for some clothes. Which means I won't have to drag Bella along tomorrow."

"Please I am begging you to take her." Bella laughed.

"Fine, but you only have 10 minutes to get into the car." Emmett said as he walked out of the house

Alice ran up the stairs to quickly change and get her purse. She was on her way back down and out the door by the time Jasper pulled his shoes and coat on.

"Have fun with Emmett Jasper, you know you will be the one picking out the presents for him." I yelled as he shut the door. "Lets go skating when this is done."

"Are you crazy or have you just forgotten my total lack of coordination?" she stopped scratching my head.

I laughed at her and rubbed my head against her stomach. Signalling her to continue scratching my head.

"Nope." She crossed her arms. "No scratches if you are going to force me to go skating with you just so you can watch me fall."

"Are you going to hold that against me forever? It was just one time." I grabbed her hand, trying to get her to start scratching it again.

"Edward it's happened every winter since we were 12, that's hardly one time." She had started to scratch my head again absentmindedly.

"I promise I won't let it happen this time. I'll catch you."

"No." She took her hand away.

"Please." I sat up.

"No Edward, no is the final answer, it will always be no."

I pulled out me secret weapon, Alice and I had mastered the skill years ago and nobody had ever been able to resist it. I let sadness come into my eyes as I felt my lip start to tremble.

BPOV

I slowly pulled on the skates Edward had rented for me at the local outdoor ice rink. Some of my worst injures had come from this hell hole. Every time we came he said he would look after me but I still managed to fall. The last time he had been with me when I started to fall, he tried to catch me and he did, but I managed to pull him down with me. I ended up with a bruised tailbone and he broke his wrist. I swore I would never come here again, but he had pulled out his stupid sad face, and here I was out in the cold with ice under my feet.

"Ready?" he asked, pulling on the string that hung from my hat.

"No" I mumbled but allowed him to pull me off of the boards.

"What are your plans for tomorrow." He let go of my hand, I already missed the contact.

"I'm not sure, Alice probably has some big event planned for me. What about you?"

"Not too sure yet, I keep getting texts from people who want to meet up with me while I'm back in town."

A kid flew by bumping me lightly, but with my normal lack of coordination increased by the ice beneath my feet I knew I would soon be hitting the ice. I yelped in surprise and waited for the contact I was sure to make with the cold ice but it never came. Instead I felt a firm grasp on my arm as Edward caught me.

"See, told ya I wouldn't let you fall." A cocky smile formed on his lips as he let go.

I rolled my eyes and skated away from him. I wasn't going to feed his ego, even if he was just joking. He quickly caught up to me and after a few more laps I decided I needed a break. Instead of being a smart person and going to the bench I decided stupidly to push my luck and just stood in the middle of the rink beside Edward. At least he would catch me if I fell again. It all happened very quickly, the little punk kid flew by me once again, he managed to not bump into me, but I leaned away from him causing me to lose my balance. I expected to feel arms reach around me and hold me up but they never came. Instead I ended up sprawled onto the ice, Edward nowhere to be seen.

I pushed myself off the cold ice and looked around for Edward. I spotted him leaned up against the boards with a giggly blond under his arm. I slowly made my way over to the bench just outside the boarded ice and pulled out my cell phone.

"Bella, what's up"

"Hey Ali, can you do me a favour and come pick me up when you are done shopping. Edward has kind of ditched me for the day I think." I looked over to where Edward and the bimbo had been, they had disappeared in the few seconds I had my back to them.

"Wait, he left you, where are you? I thought you were spending the day at my house? I swear to god I will kill him when I see him." She was yelling now.

"I'm at the outdoor ice rink, we decided to go skating. We were having a good time but now he went off with some blonde chick and I'm stranded."

"Okay, we're on our way now. Emmett almost got us banned from the mall when he decided to beat up one of the elfs that take pictures of kids with Santa. Apparently he commented that Rose should go back to his igloo or whatever. So were almost in Forks, see you in 15 minutes."

I pulled off the skates and put my feet back into my boots. Edwards shoes were still here so he must be somewhere nearby. I hope Alice sees him and he get what he deserves.

After a short wait I saw Emmetts SUV pull up. He loved his jeep but it wasn't exactly practical for the winter. Alice jumped out screaming Edwards name and looking around frantically.

"He left about 5 minutes ago." I looked down at the ground. "He walked right past me, he had that girl with him."

"Oh that boy better not come home for a long, long time. He needs to give me lots of time to cool down." Alice yelled, getting back into the car.

I climbed into the back seat beside Alice and rested my head against the window as we drove.

"Can you just drop me off at my house?" I asked Emmett. "I'm not really in the mood to see him when he gets home from his fun."

5 minutes later I was walking into my room. Charlie was downstairs watching some basketball game on TV. I never paid attention to who was playing or the rules no matter how many times he tried to get me interested in it. I heard my phone beep, signalling a text message, most likely Alice making sure I was ok. I rolled over, flipped the phone up and saw it was a message from Edward.

I grumbled to myself but decided to read it anyways.

_Hey, I don't know who you are but you were at the top of Edwards contact list. You need to come to the hospital. Edwards in really bad shape._


	7. Chapter 7

**Just Friends?**

**Ok so I was told that for the last chapter people were alerted that it was up but couldn't actually read it. I believe the problem was fixed, and I am sorry for the confusion. I'm not too sure how that happened. **

BPOV

What, what did that mean bad shape. Why was he at the hospital, 20 minutes ago he had been fine. He had left with that girl. What did she do to him. I had to call Alice, wait what was her number. It's in my phone. Wait call Emmett Alice will cry, no Jasper, he's the level headed one. Do I have his number, he's always with Alice, I just call her and she answers for both of them. Okay calm down Bella just call Alices phone and ask for Jasper, that can't be too hard. I dialled her number but got a busy signal, I'm not sure why but the busy signal sent me into a fit of tears.

"Bells, what's wrong?" Charlies voice was full of concern.

"Edward." I managed to sob out after a few seconds.

"I'll kill him. What did he do to you. Did he hurt you? Is that it Bells? Is he at home? I'll call his parents and tell them to keep him there until I get over to him." He was pacing. "You need to tell me what he did, or I can't help you."

"Edward." I took a deep breath trying to get control of the tears. "Hospital." The tears came quick, not allowing me to give more information.

"He's at the hospital." His face softened, realising that Edward had not hurt me. Well he had, but that was forgotten by him being placed in the hospital.

I nodded slowly and pushed my cell phone towards him. He quickly read the text and called Edwards parents.

"Esme, it's Charlie. I'm not too sure what happened but I believe Edward has gotten himself into some trouble." He paused, "No not that kind of trouble, Bella just got a text from somebody using his phone saying he is at the hospital and in pretty bad shape." Another pause, "No, that's fine I understand. "I'll be there real quick. Your welcome, bye."

He looked at me. "Okay we need to pick up Esme on the way, she is too upset to drive. Carlisle is already at the hospital, he hasn't called Esme to say Edward is there so he either doesn't know or he's in pretty bad shape."

I nodded my head to show him that I had heard him and slowly pushed myself off the floor. I wasn't quite sure what to say, not too long ago he had people saying they would kill him the next time they saw him, and now he was fighting for his life. I followed him mindlessly to the car and got in. The drive to the Cullens house was quiet and took about 10 times longer than normal. When we got there Esme was pacing near the door obviously wanting to be with her son.

"I called the kids, they are going to meet us at the hospital. I've tried to call Carlisle but it just keeps going to his voicemail. I'm really worried Charlie." She climbed into the front seat, tear stains evident on her cheeks.

The drive to the hospital was a quiet, tension filled ride. Every once in a while Esme would let out a quiet sob or try to call Carlisle again but the call never went through. Charlie dropped Esme and I at the emergency entrance and went to park the car.

"Where is he?" Esme asked Alice as we walked into the room.

"Surgery. I don't know where or how bad he is, just that he's in surgery." She was crying, tears streaming down her face.

"Carlisle isn't with him, but I don't know where he is. He came out for a second when we got here but left in after he got a page. He seemed to be really worried." Jasper informed us, practically holding Alice up. I felt horrible for her, she loved him so much. I knew that she would now regret how many times she had said she wanted to kill him and how much she wanted him to die.

Charlie came in a few minutes later and we all took seats in the waiting room. The clock slowly ticking, the annoying buzz of the too harsh lights, and the worried mutters of the other people in the waiting room was the only sound. Emmett was on his fifth chocolate bar, apparently he ate when he was worried.

"Esme." Carlisle sighed walking into the room. He was in his usual pristine white lab coat and light blue dress shirt but they were not clean like they always were. Today they were covered in blood. Edwards blood.

Esme mumbled something inaudible before bursting into tears when she connected the blood covering her husbands clothes was her sons.

"He's okay." Carlisle said, rubbing her back soothingly. "He's going to be okay. We just put him into recovery. He's still unconscious but out can go see him. I'm going to get changed and I'll come back to get the rest of you."

Esme and Carlisle left and for the first time since arriving at the hospital I looked at my watch. 5 hours, we had been sitting in the waiting room for 5 hours, for 5 hours Edward had been in surgery.

"Edward Cullen." A old nurse called from the door leading to the recovery wing.

We all stood up along with a blonde on the other side of the room.

"Who's that?" Alice whispered to me. I looked at her more closely and realised that she was the giddy blonde from the ice rink. "That's her. That's the bitch from the ice rink. She's the one who texted me."

"What did you do to him?" Alice screeched walking with a purpose over to the blonde.

"What? Who are you?" the blonde was so confused I would have laughed it had been any other situation.

"I'm Alice Cullen, the guy you were with and almost killed is my brother Edward Cullen. I suggest you start talking not before I kick your ass so far that they will need the search dogs and a helicopter to find you ."

"Whoa whoa whoa, I didn't almost kill him, he almost killed me. I was just lucky enough to be wearing my seatbelt. I met him at the ice rink, he asked if I wanted to go to his house for some hot chocolate, I agreed. We were on our merry way when all of a sudden he started freaking out about how he was a jerk and how he couldn't believe he would do such a stupid thing. He pulled a quick u turn and was speeding when we hit some ice and slid into a tree. He was thrown through the windshield. He was driving so fast, he was being reckless and irresponsible. He's lucky my dad isn't suing him for almost killing his daughter." She was yelling at Alice, not a good idea.

"Shut up, jut shut up!" Alice yelled putting her hand in the girls face. "My brother has been in surgery for 5 hours, you hardly have a scratch on you and you're worried about yourself. I think you should leave, nobody wants you here."

The blonde left in a huff without saying anything. We all wandered together down the hall towards Edwards room. I let the others walk in first. I didn't really know if I wanted to see him, I was really worried about how I would react when I saw him all bruised.

I heard Alice let out a small gasp as she entered the room, that certainly didn't help with me walking into the small room. But I slowly forced me feet to walk forward and carry me into the room. When I entered I never would have been able to prepare myself for what I saw. Esme was crying silently sitting in a chair pulled up beside the bed holding Edwards hand, with Carlisle rubbing her shoulder soothingly. Edward was unconscious, a mask helping him get the oxygen needed. His leg was wrapped in gauze, as was his one ankle and his right arm.

I walked over and ran my thumb lightly over his scratched cheek.

"Do you know what happened?" Emmett asked Carlisle, breaking the silence.

"All we know is what Marcy told us. It was apparent that they were speeding, Edward was not wearing a seatbelt so when the car made contact with the tree, there was so much force that he was thrown from the vehicle."

"What's with the random bandage on his ankle?" Emmett was horrible, the poor boy had been in an accident, he most likely hit it off something sometime during the accident.

"Just an old injury that was never taken care of." It was said in such a way that did not allow any other questions to be asked about it.

"I cant believe this, he was on his way back to get me, I'm the reason hes hurt. I wish he would have just gone and forgotten about me." I burst into tears all over again. I was the reason he was here, just hours before he had been fighting for his life because he had been rushing back to get me.

"This is not your fault." They almost all said.

"He never should have left you." Alice places a soothing hand on my arm. "That was his mistake, he never should have been a jerk, and he should have been driving at a slower speed, he knows how icy it gets in the winter. Nothing about this is your fault."

"Okay, I think all the kids should go home, and get some rest. There is nothing you can do while he is sleeping. I will call you when he wakes up." Esme sighed, brushing Edwards hair off of his face.

"We'll have to put him on some heavy duty pain medications, so I wouldn't expect him to be awake much, or all that happy when he is awake." Carlisle increased the rate of the IV drip that was feeding Edward his pain medication.

After leaving the hospital I had a long shower, and collapsed into my bed. I pulled out my favourite book and waited for Alice to text me like she promised saying that Edward had woken up. I must have dozed off at some point because I was awaken by my phone vibrating on my table.

_Mom just called, he's awake and had something to drink. Complaining about the pain but is ok otherwise. We're going in at 10am to see him, you coming?_

I quickly replied to Alice telling her that I would be coming with them the next day to see him. I planned to fall back into my slumber quickly but I was unable to. After tossing and turning for what felt like hours I finally gave up and went downstairs to get something to drink. I was surprised to find Charlie sitting at the kitchen table on the phone and looking quite stressed.

When he spotted me he said a quick goodbye and hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" I poured myself a glass of water.

"Oh it was just Scott." He took a deep breath, "Bells, I have to arrest Edward, and when he gets out of the hospital he will be going to jail. He had marijuana in his car."

"You're arresting him for having drugs in his car dad, I know it's like a big thing to you guys but look at what he's had to deal with."

"That's the thing Bells, it wasn't just drugs. There was a gun."


	8. Chapter 8

**Just Friends?**

**OK so I'm sorry if some people were a little confused with the last chapter. I realise there was a lot going on so this chapter will tie up some of the loose ends. **

**Thanks to those who reviewed. **

EPOV

Pain, that's all I felt. Pain throughout my whole body. There was a general ache, with some points of searing pain. I let my eyes open slowly, the bright florescent lights did not agree with my tired eyes. I looked around with my eyes, not wanting to move my head too afraid to add more pain to the mix.

I brought my hand up slowly to push away the mask on my face, it was slowly becoming apparent that I was in the hospital. The last thing I remember was trying to get control of the car as it hit the patch of ice, and Marcys scream.

"Edward honey, are you okay? Do you want me to get the nurse, she can give you more medication to help with the pain." Esme sounded really worried.

I nodded my head slowly and felt a sharp pain shoot across my forehead, yep moving is bad, very bad. An elderly nurse came in and started fussing with one of the IV bags. I didn't pay all that much attention to her, as long as she was helping the pain go away I didn't care what she did.

"Here drink some water. Your throat is probably really sore, they had to put a tube down your throat during the surgery." Carlisle handed me a glass of water, I hadn't even realised he was there until that point.

"I'll be right back okay sweetie, I just need to call your sister and let her know you are all right. Everyone is very worried about you."

I must have dozed off, I heard voices whispering quietly. A gun, shit they found that, I totally forgot that it was still in the car. I knew I should have brought it in the house the first night.

"We're going to have to arrest him, when he wakes up. I would have ignored the drugs, he's a good kid, he just has had some hard times in his life." That was Charlie, I was being arrested, maybe I could just keep my eyes closed until he left.

I heard a door close and decided I would pretend to just be waking up from the noise.

"Nice try Edward." I quickly closed my eyes. Damn dams damn, I was caught. Stupid tricky fucked up cops. "I know you're awake your eyes were just open."

"how you feeling?"

"Just peachy Charlie, fanfrickentastic." I kept my eyes closed, I didn't feel like having to look him in the eye.

"Drugs?" Charlie yelled, couldn't he tell I was in pain. "Better yet a gun. What are you doing with a gun in your car? A car that you have been driving my daughter around in. Are you planning on shooting someone, is someone coming after you. If they are I can help you Edward. But don't you dare bring my daughter into this. What if they caught up to you and she was there, she could get hurt because of your stupidity."

"Whoa, calm down super cop. Nobody's coming after me. I don't have issues with anybody, well to the point that I would shoot them anyway."

"Then who's the gun for Edward. No silly business either, this is serious."

"I can't believe you just said silly business, you're really starting to show your age Charlie."

"Who's the gun for?"

"Me." He really needed to drop this, he was getting annoying.

"No really Edward, who were you planning on shooting with the gun. People don't get a gun to just have, they usually have a target in mind."

I took a deep breath, he was seriously annoying. I closed my eyes for a long second, and opened them allowing them to fill with the coldness I felt on a daily basis. "Me."

Yep that stunned him. "You can go think about that one super cop. Oh and while you're out there send a nurse in, the pain meds are starting to wear of."

I closed my eyes and waited for the next disruption. Carlisle had apparently instructed the nurses to not put me on full doses of pain meds, because apparently I got grumpy and sleepy. I guess he wanted me to be in pain and coherent when he talked to me about all the trouble I was in.

"Edward wake up." A little pixie voice demanded.

"I'm awake Alice, my eyes are just closed."

"Dad was right when he said you would be grumpy. Everyone's here so you better open your eyes and tell us what happened."

"What is this, the fucking Breakfast Club? I'll tell you what I want on my terms. I'm not really in the mood for talking Ali."

"No you will start talking now. You forgot all about Bella when you were at the ice rink. Do you know how much of a jerk you are. I swear if you were not already beaten up I would get Emmett to put you in here."

"I can't talk about that with you Alice, it's private and I don't really think you will understand. I got in an accident on my way to get her, I'm sorry I made a mistake." I really was sorry, I couldn't believe it myself when I had realised I had left without Bella. But there was no way I was telling Alice why I had gone, she just couldn't know.

"Well then tell Bella, the rest of us will leave. You owe her an explanation."

"Fine the rest of you out." I couldn't believe I was going to do this. I had hardly told anyone about what had happened. But with all the things that had happened with Bella I felt like she should get some type of explanation. I had been fighting with my feelings ever since I saw her the first morning she came into my room. It's easier to be a jerk to someone then have them care about you, and I knew I couldn't just have Bella as one of the girls I use to satisfy the itch.

"Ummm are you sure you want to hear everything, I mean it's not exactly a pleasant story."

She nodded her head slowly. I knew I wouldn't tell her the whole story but I would tell her what related to her.

"So, uh, Carlisle and Esme aren't actually my real parents. They uh, they adopted me not too long ago. When I met you they weren't my parents, just people who actually loved me and wanted to help me. My real parents were abusive. Carlisle adopted me when they beat me so bad that I was sent to the hospital." I took a breath and looked at her face. She was completely shocked. I left her a chance to say something but she didn't so I continued on with my story. "Alice doesn't know any of this so please don't mention anything to her, it would break her heart if she knew I wasn't her real brother. I actually have a sister that's related to me my blood, by the time Carlisle had adopted me she had gotten out of the house so I didn't worry that she wouldn't be okay. And she was okay, until this year when she was hit by a car." I didn't want to cry, at least not in front of anyone. "At the rink I saw Marcy, she looked so much like my sister I just wanted to spend some time with her. It was like a dream I hardly knew what I was doing, and then when I was driving Marcy started talking about all this high school drama and it was like I finally realised she wasn't my sister. That's when I turned to come a get you. I'm so sorry for leaving. I really didn't mean to."

I looked up to her again, the whole time I had been talking I had been looking at my hands.

"I'm really sorry about your sister. I had no idea about any of that. I don't really know what to say to you. It's just so much to take in. "

"I don't expect you to say anything B. I just needed you to know that I would never leave you on purpose. I guess I should also say I'm sorry for how I've been acting lately. I mean with Kristy and everything, I shouldn't have been such a jerk, but you also shouldn't have gotten mad at me. She's not my girlfriend and neither are you. Which means I can do what I want with who I want."

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have gotten mad at you for kissing her, but n the car you completely ignored me, that really hurt. She paused taking a moment to look at me. "You look really tired. Maybe you should go back to bed."

"They want to clean the incisions from the surgery and check to make sure that they can put a hard cast on. They're kinda rushing it cause your dad wants to arrest me." I looked down again, not wanting to see her reaction. I was more than a little surprised when she started to scratch my head.

"I know." It was just above a whisper. And right then and there I knew that Charlie had told her about the gun.

"I wasn't really going to do it, well I don't think so at least. At least not right now with Christmas so close. It would be so much harder on everyone."

"Do what?" shit she didn't know what I had told Charlie.

"Umm nothing." I was saved when a nurse came in effectively ending the conversation.

I would be going to jail in 3 days. Apparently that was the agreed upon date, leaving enough time for some o my wounds to heal, and the others to be decent enough for us to not have to worry about the more extensive ones. I had been in surgery so long because of my leg, apparently I cut one of the main arteries and they had spent hours reconnecting it. Even Carlisle was surprised I had been able to keep the lower half of the leg. My arm was cut deeply but it had not caused any major damage.

I was really happy that I had been able to apologise to Bella. I wasn't exactly happy that I had to tell her about my past in order to get her to understand but I was pretty sure she wouldn't tell anybody. The next couple days went pretty smoothly. I knew I needed to talk to Carlisle about my ankle, I knew that he had seen it, and had been the one to bandage it up to make it look like it had happened in the accident. He would push me to get help for 'my problems' and I would argue, we would yell and then it would blow over in a couple days.

The door opened and Carlisle walked in. "we need to talk Edward."

"I already know what you're going to say, no I will not go to speak to someone, but I will let you check up on me whenever you like after you bail me out tomorrow." I knew he would agree to that. I already knew he would bail me out so I was really just giving him a little present for covering my ankle up for me and saving me from the hassle of having to explain it to anyone.

"That's the things Edward. I'm not bailing you out."

**I hope that cleared some things up. It may take me a couple days to update, its a pretty busy weekend but I will try to have something up by Tuesday. If not I am sorry. **


	9. AN

**Just Friends?**

**This is not a chapter just an authors note. I feel like nobody is enjoying the story anymore and it has become really hard to write when I feel that nobody wants to read it. If you want me to continue the story say so, if not I will be moving on and writing a new story, it will have to be reworked because I had planned on it being a sequel to this one but oh well. **


	10. Chapter 9

**Just Friends?**

**Hey, thanks everyone for wanting me to continue with the story and saying how much you liked it. It makes it a lot easier to write a story when you know people actually enjoy it and look forward to reading it. I am very sorry for how long it took to get this chapter up. Life has been very stressful lately. **

**Some important news. I have just started writing a second story. It will be different from this one, I'm really looking forward to posting it, I think I like it better than this one, but don't worry I will finish this one. Watch out for the new story ****Catch The Gossip.**** It should be up sometime in the next 2 weeks. I want to get a couple of chapters written before I started posting just to make sure that both stories will be getting updated on a regular basis. **

EPOV

EPOV

"All ready?" Charlie asked me.

"As ready as I will be I guess." I wasn't happy at all that Carlisle wasn't going to bail me out, hell it made me feel like I wasn't even one of his kids. I knew very well that if Alice were the one going to jail she would be bailed out before she was even put into a cell.

"Normally I would through some handcuffs on your wrists but considering you need them to use your crutches I'll just walk beside you."

"Yep." I grumbled. Bella hadn't been to the hospital to see me at all in the past 3 days. Alice said it was because Charlie didn't want her near me but there was a part of me that thought she was angry at me for all the shit I had put her through, or if I had just too much baggage for her to handle.

****************

Being in jail was horrible. Not that I could complain all that much. There were only four of us in the Forks jail so you didn't really have to worry about dropping your soap in the shower. For that I thanked God every day. I liked having my privacy and freedom and I had absolutely none in this little hell hole. Nobody had come by to visit and I had been in jail for a month already. My habit of smoking had become about 10 times worse as there was nothing to do for the majority of the day. All I did was eat, sleep, smoke, and work out.

I had trouble sleeping, even the guards had noticed, when I was finally able to sleep, it was full of night terrors and I would wake up screaming and covered in sweat. I was becoming more depressed every day I was locked up the one good thing about Carlisles plan was that I was not able to hurt myself, which I know is horrible to say but every day I had the craving to pull the blade across my skin.

Which left me to where I am today, lying on the hard mat they call a bed counting the bumps on the ceiling.

"Cullen." One of the guards came over and unlocked my cell. "You've made bail."

I jumped out of the bed. "I get to go?"

"Yep, your dad is waiting in the lobby ready to take you home. Stay out of trouble, we don't want you back in here."

"Hey Carlisle." I mumbled as I walked into the lobby.

"How have you been?" he asked, when we got into the car.

"About as good as one can be when they are locked up in a cell for the Christmas holidays and they don't get to see a single family member on Christmas Day. "

"Look I know you're upset about all of this but if I brought your mother to come see you like she wanted to she would not leave the place without you with us. You needed to get your life in control and I didn't know how else to do it."

"Getting my life back under control, are you kidding me, this hasn't helped me, this has made it worse. Yes I haven't cut myself in a month, but whoopee that's all I want to do right now. I can't wait to get back to school so I can be away from you. You know what I can't wait to get away from everyone in Forks, at east my friends back home tried to help without locking me in a cell." I was yelling now but I couldn't really help it. The first thing I was doing when I got home was booking my flight back to school.

BPOV

When my dad had told me I wasn't allowed to see Edward anymore, I was sad but in a way I was also kind of relieved. I mean Edward had dropped a bomb on me and I really wanted to be there for him but I was only seventeen, I really don't think I would be able to help him. I didn't even know what to say to him, what do you say to someone who cuts themselves, who had abusive parents, whos father had beaten them to the point they were put into the hospital and who had lost the only person he was blood related to that he loved. It was a lot for me to handle, I couldn't believe how he felt.

Yes it was selfish of me, but really, I couldn't handle all of this, no matter how much I wanted to. The biggest problem a senior in high school was supposed was what college you went to, or who you were going to prom with, not how you were going to help your childhood friend who you were now in love with stop hurting themselves and get their life back in order.

For a whole month Alice and I had avoided the subject of Edward, when I went to their house on Christmas day to give them their presents, all of Edwards presents had been removed from under the tree. Carlisle said it was so that people wouldn't feel sad, but I think it was more the fact that he didn't want his family to know that Edward was in jail. The story was he had gone back to school early.

I'm not really sure why but every day at four in the afternoon I still went on my computer, just in case Edward had got bailed out and wanted to talk. Nothing was different today except for the fact that Edward Cullen was in fact at home and on his computer at exactly four. I quickly requested to chat with him, not sure what I wanted to say but I wanted to make sure he was okay.

**Cullen has denied the chat.**

I couldn't really say I was shocked, I mean I hadn't talked to him in over a month, and it wasn't like I had tried to go and see him. My dad isn't with me every hour of the day so he had to know that I had made part of the decision to not come and see him. I sent him another chat request.

**Cullen has accepted the chat. **

I smiled, I knew that even if he was mad he would eventually give up and just talk to me, but I hadn't expected it to happen so fast.

**Bells:** Hey, you're out. How's freedom?

**Cullen:** meh

**Bells:** meh, just meh, that's all you have to say

**Cullen:** well you had a month to come over and ask how I was doing, and truthfully I think I had more freedom in jail then I do at home. No doors closed, Carlisle comes into my room whenever he wants, I couldn't even go to the bathroom without him knocking on the door

**Bells:** Charlie wouldn't let me come see you, I wanted to I really did but the guards would tell him I had come to see you

**Cullen:** I thought we were good enough friends that you would have gotten into a little trouble to see me, especially with everything you know, everything I told you. Or is that the reason you didn't come, is there too much baggage, I mean come on it would be different if we were more than whatever we are but I thought you would at least talk to me as a friend

**Bells:** You know I would come and see you if I could but I couldn't, there was no way

Yep little lie, but what was I supposed to tell him, yes there is too much drama in your life, I don't want to be there to help you through it, yea that would go over well

**Cullen:** sure whatever, I'm going back to school in 2 days, I guess I'll see you in the summer, that is if you are willing to make big daddy a little angry

**Bells: **I'm coming over tonight, leave your balcony door open, I just have to wait for Charlie to go into work, he's on night shift tonight

**Cullen:** see you at 10

**Cullen has left the chat.**

Jerk, he would do that. Probably wasn't even mad at me, just wanted me to come over. I looked at what I was wearing, yea I could sleep in this. I went downstairs to make Charlie some food to take with him to work, he would be waking up in a few hours. I made him spaghetti, it was something that would be easy to make, and would taste good when he needed to reheat it later on in the night.

When I was done making the spaghetti I plopped myself down on the couch to watch a movie before going over to Edwards. I hated just waiting to go but I couldn't just leave and say I was going to Alices, Charlie would know that Edward was home and he would get suspicious.

At nine thirty Charlie left for work and at nine forty five I left for the Cullen house. When I got there, all the lights were off, must have been a stressful day and everyone went to bed early, or nobody was home, but then again Edward said that they weren't leaving him alone at all so I would guess that they were sleeping.

I ran around the house into the back yard and then up the stairs leading to Edwards balcony. I opened the door slowly, it was completely dark in the room with no lights on.

"Bella?"

"Yep, just me, turn on a light so I can find my way to your bed." A small light by the bed was turned on. "Tired?"

"Yea, it's been a long day, and it feels good to be sleeping on a comfy bed." He rolled onto his back as I climbed into the bed.

"Do you want to talk or do you just want to sleep."

"You don't want to hear what I have to say." He mumbled putting his head on my stomach. "Scratch please, it's been like a month."

"I do want to hear what you have to say."

"No, last time I told you stuff you ran off, you didn't come and see me, you just left. You don't know what it felt like to tell someone that, someone you trust, and then they leave. So don't say you want to hear what I have to say, you only want to hear the good stuff."

"Then just tell me the good stuff Edward we don't have to have a serious conversation right now." I sighed, apparently he was actually mad at me. So much for wishful thinking.

"Nothing's good right now. Life is shit." He rolled away from me, effectively ending his head scratch.

"Why did you want me to come over if you're not going to talk to me?"

"I didn't invite you over. You did that yourself. Remember?"

"You could have told me not to come over." I sighed, and carefully placed my hand on his side.

"I won't cut myself if you're here." It came out in a mumble as he turned off the light. At first I didn't even think that he had said it. But he did, and it broke my heart.

**Once again sorry for the huge amount of time between updates, that will not happen again. **

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review, it really does make my day. **


	11. Chapter 10

**Just Friends?**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added this story to their alert lists. Make sure you check out my new story ****Catch The Gossip****. **

**Special thanks to **_**Via-La-Hallie**_** for giving me possibly my best review yet. I am so sorry for the huge time gap again, the internet didn't work after a power outage so I had no way of posting this. I'm not going to set w time frame for updates because they never seem to happen but I will try to get chapters out on a more regular basis. **

BPOV

I jumped awake when I felt a hard object pushed up against me. Ouch that really hurt. I looked down at my stomach to see Edwards clenched fist tensed beside me. I looked over at him and he looked like he was in pain, as I sat up to get a better look he started to mumble something and his body moved in awkward and jerky movements. He must be having a nightmare and from the looks of it this one was really bad.

"Shhhh calm down Edward, you're ok." I tried to place a calming hand on his arm but he smacked it away. Oh God that hurt I looked down and there was already a bruise forming.

"No, STOP, no, no, no!" Edward started going between mumbling and screaming. He was tossing violently. "No, stop, I said DON'T TOUCH ME. No, let go, stop, STOP, don't, don't, stop, LET GO OF ME!"

I put my hand on his chest trying to get him to calm down but he quickly smacked it away. Great another bruise, I needed help with this. "I'll be right back okay, I'm just going to get someone to help."

I ran down the hall and stairs making my way to the other end of the house, where the other bedrooms were located. I heard a distressed scream from Edwards end of the house.

"HELP! I need some help!" I yelled as I ran through the kitchen. I was starting to get stressed.

"Woah Bells calm down." I yelped in surprise as I felt to big strong arms wrap around me.

"What's going on?" Emmett asked.

"What why are you here?" I asked getting a little sidetracked as he let me go.

"Oh, we were all watching movies in the Alis room, I came down to get some more popcorn.

"Hey Em, you almost done with that popcorn the girls are getting a little impatient." Jasper asked as he came into the kitchen.

"Yeah it's pretty much done. Wait," he turned to look at me again, "what were you freaking out about?"

Oh my God how could I have forgotten about Edward, I went running back upstairs. "I need your help with Edward!" I yelled.

"Wait He's home?" Jasper asked running up the stairs behind me.

"Yes and there's something wrong, he's freaking out , but he's asleep, I have no idea what is wrong. I think it's a nightmare."

An anguished scream ripped through the air. Jasper and Emmett pushed past me when they heard it and ran into Edwards room. When I got into the room they were walking slowly towards the bed.

"Did you try to wake him up?" Jasper asked as he turned on the bedside light.

"I tried but all I got was a bruise for my attempt." I turned on the big light hoping that it would help bring Edward out of his horrible dream. Another pained scream ripped though the room as Edward thrashed violently on the bed. I had never seen such a horrible thing in my life, sleep was supposed to be a peaceful time and this was obviously not the case here.

"Fuck that hurt." Emmett grumbled as he shook his hand. "Watch out Jazz there's a lot of power behind those punches."

"I'll keep that in mind." Jasper replied assessing the situation, it looked as if he was trying to find a pattern in Edwards violent movements so that he could make an attempt to hold him down without getting hit.

"Fuck you!" Emmett yelled jumping away from the side of Edwards bed. "He hit me again."

"He doesn't mean to, he probably thinks your some dragon or something and he's protecting some princess in a castle." Jasper yelled.

"Stop yelling you two, just help him, he's going to hurt himself."

I'm not really sure how it happened, but the next thing I knew Emmett had jumped into the air landing on Edward effectively pinning his arms down and protecting himself from being hit again. I was too stunned by the scene in front of me to notice that the screaming had stopped, being replaced with Emmetts nervous laughter.

"Morning Eddie." Em boombed, never one to handle a serious moment well. He rolled off of Edward allowing me my first look into a pair of terrified green eyes.

"You okay man?" Jasper asked, carefully approaching the bed again.

Edward glanced quickly between the three of us before pushing off of the bed and running into the bathroom where we heard him empty the contents of his stomach.

We waited unmoving in his room until he staggered back into his room. He looked horrible, pale as a ghost, chest heaving trying to catch his breath, and eyes wavering slightly between a scary coldness and a heartbreaking terror.

"All of you out." He said coldly, just above a whisper. If we had not all been paying attention to him at that moment, we probably wouldn't have heard him.

Jasper and Emmett left quietly, heads slightly hung, realising that Edward was truly angry. I hung back trying to get Edward to look me in the eye but he kept avoiding my gaze, choosing to stare out the window and into the dark of night. "Look Edward-"

"No." He cut me off, his voice cold and hard. "I said get out." It was at that moment that his eyes finally met mine, dark and cold. His jaw was set as he glared at me.

I nodded slightly as I turned towards the door. I hadn't even made it halfway down the hallway when I heard the loud crashes coming from Edwards room. I made my way quickly down the stairs, through the kitchen and out into the cold night, silent tears now flowing freely from my eyes. I had a feeling of dread as I pulled myself into my truck. This night was going to change how everything had been going. It had the potential to shatter the bond the six of us had, and that was a terrifying feeling.

*************

I had no idea how much that night would truly change the way my life was until I work up in the morning with five text messages from Alice.

_Bella, you need to call me the minute you get this- A _

_Bella I am being serious, call me- A_

_BELLA! I didn't want to tell you via text but you have left me no choice, Edward is gone, he left sometime before everyone woke up this morning- A _

_Bella, please call so I know you are OK, I know this is really upsetting, I know you are in love with him, even though you wont admit it to yourself- A_

_OK you aren't replying at all so I am coming over to your house, see you soon- A_

I checked the time and was slightly surprised when I looked at the clock, 1:08 great I had slept through the morning, and from the text messages it was a morning that I didn't want to sleep through. Better brush my teeth I thought to myself I wouldn't have time to shower before she arrived. I had just made it to the bottom of the stairs when I heard a frantic bang on the door.

I opened the door and was quickly pulled into a tight hug. "He didn't even say goodbye." Alice cried out into my shoulder. "I didn't even know dad had bailed him out until this morning, and that was only because I found mom crying in the kitchen. She said he was gone, packed his clothes up and left."

"He was probably just upset that it took so long for your dad to bail him out, he probably just needs to blow off some steam, I'm sure he will call you guys by tomorrow. He most likely just went back to school." I hugged her tighter. It was the first time that I had ever lied to Alice, something that I never wanted to do again. I knew in my heart that Edward was extremely upset, and it would take him much longer then a day to contact his family.

"Are you okay, you know with him leaving." Alice mumbled into my shoulder.

"Yeah." I nodded, right now was not about me, I was going to be there for her, like she had been there for me time and time again. "Common I'll put some popcorn in the microwave and we can watch a movie, get your mind off things for a bit."

"Okay." She pulled away, a small smile on her lips. "Can we put extra butter on it?"

I let out a small laugh, nodding as I walked into the kitchen. She truly believed what I said, in her mind Edward was just blowing off steam, but she hadn't heard the hardness in his voice or the coldness in his eyes.

************

Once a week Alice would come over for popcorn and a movie. She still hadn't talked to Edward, it had been six months since we had last seen him and it was killing her. He would call Esme and talk to her but refused to talk to anyone else, Alice had stolen the phone from her mom one day and the only sound she heard was the breathing of her older brother. Apparently she sat with the phone for ten minutes just listening to him breathe before he hung up on her. She was devastated after that.

Jasper, Em and I had decided that we would not tell Alice about what we saw the last night any of us had seen Edward, and it was causing some issues in her and Jaspers relationship. She knew he was keeping something from her, and she was not handling it well. "He's cheating on me." She wailed around a mouthful of popcorn.

"I promise you Alice, he is not cheating on you. Everyone knows he loves you, he has said it himself. He plans on marrying you, we all know that." I hugged her tightly.

We had graduated high school and the summer flew by. Before I knew it I was off to college leaving behind everything I had ever known. It was hard splitting up from Alice to go to school but we had different goals in life now, I wanted to be a journalist and she wanted to be a stay at home mom. While I left for school she was staying at home, staying close to the people she loved and the places she knew.

The school year flew by, the work load was a lot more then I had expected but it kept me busy and I didn't have a lot of time to think about what I had left behind in Forks. Whenever I went home to visit Alice and I would pick p from where we had left off, as if I had never gone away to school. I was studying for my final exam when I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I groaned, thinking it was someone from the class asking a stupid question, they had been messaging me all night.

_My dearest Bella, in less than 48 hours you will be back in Forks, and even more excitingly in less than 72 hours we will be at the shore house, enjoying summer and the beach. Good luck on your exam! See you soon!!!!!- A _

I couldn't help but laugh, she would be counting down the hours until we left to go to the shore just like we did every summer since we were 12. Last year it had been a struggle as everyone had been there except for Edward who at the time was still only contacting his mother. Alice had been keeping me updated on the Edward crisis as she liked to call it on a weekly basis. Just after Christmas he had asked his mom to pass her the phone and even though it was just a short conversation she couldn't have been happier. They had been talking on a regular basis since then, it only took him a couple weeks longer to start talking to Carlisle, which seemed to make Alice even happier. Her brother was finally re-entering her life, and her family as she knew it was slowly being put back together.

*************

"Okay, everyone take their usual rooms." Alice directed as she dumped her bags onto the couch of the shore house. "You get to have a bed all to yourself this year Bells."

"Awesome." I mumbled quietly, it used to be a bedroom that Edward and I had shared. When we were younger Alice, Rose and I had shared a room and the boys had shared another one but as we got older instead of having us sneak around Esme decided we could share with whoever we wanted. Of course Alice and Jasper paired up, Rose and Emmett did the same which left me and Edward to share a room. It was never really a big deal to us, we were friends and nothing ever happened.

The past couple days had been pretty crazy, I spent the days with Charlie for the most part, packed like crazy for the shore and tried to restock the freezer with reheatable meals for Charlie. I had planned on sleeping on the way to the shore, hoping to put the 5 hour trip to good use but once we were on the road I realised there was no way I would be able to sleep with all the singing and the arguing. Oh my God they argued about everything from who got shot gun to when we would stop to stretch our legs. Needless to say by the time we got to the shore I was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep. Everyone else seemed to have similar ideas because we all wandered into our separate bedrooms mumbling goodnight to each other.

A few hours later I was woken up when the bed groaned under the weight of having another person on it.

"Alice?" I questioned into the darkness.

"Bella?"

Oh. My. God.

**Ok hope you enjoyed the chapter. I would love to hear what you think, good bad or ugly. **

**Also if someone is interested in betaing my story please message me. I would love to have someones thoughts on the chapters before I put them out. **


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